- According to FAO the sector contributes 26 per cent directly and 27 per cent
- Vaccination, surveillance and reporting are key in these and this squarely needs the county to participate.
Image: George Murage
Over the years, agricultural sector has remained the backbone of Kenya’s economy for a long time and will still be so for more years to come, despite less funding from the National Government.
As a country, we are yet to meet the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods.
This declaration set forth a series of concrete development goals to be reached by 2025, including achieving a six per cent annual agricultural growth rate and a 10 per cent agricultural expenditure share; ending hunger and halving poverty.
According to FAO the sector contributes 26 per cent directly and 27 per cent indirectly through linkages to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
It is worth noting also that it is the main source of employment to millions of Kenyans and it is mainly the source of income to the rural folks.
With devolution it was expected that the sector would be fully exploited to reduce the poverty levels in the country and consequently be food secure and earn foreign exchange.
On the contrary, the sector has experience poor support such as delayed disbursement of funds, lack of office space, and lack of electricity needed in maintaining vaccines cold chain, lack of vaccines, lack of enough personnel, poor facilitation to carry out mandate and others.
Just like in the crop sector, livestock farmers are crying too from animal diseases causing deaths and other related losses, cattle rustling, poor milk prices and generally high cost of production.
These issues raise questions as to why the county governments are not funding the sector yet it can earn them money.
This only means the population, which depend on livestock, remain poor and prone to losses, which would have been prevented.
There are several reasons, which should compel the counties to increase funding in this sector, which include prevention of zoonotic diseases, poverty eradication, development of ASAL areas and increase food security.
Animal diseases that are vaccinable should never be a serious challenge in working governments but we still find notification of quarantine impositions.
Foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, Anthrax, black quarter, Peste des petits, contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia continue to cause losses in many parts of pastoralists areas.
These diseases are also denying the country access to the international markets thus the sector remains below its potential performance.
There is need to put in place serious vaccination schedules against these diseases and other measures such as surveillance and reporting.
For instance, the implementation of the Progressive Control Pathway for Foot and Mouth Disease cannot be successful unless the county and national government team up well in terms of funding and other logistics.
Vaccination, surveillance and reporting are key in these and this squarely needs the county to participate.
Being an OIE project, failure to meet this means the country will be left behind and thus lose market for the livestock products.
Predictable diseases like Rift Valley Fever, which is 100 per cent fatal, should be dealt with properly by vaccination same case as anthrax.
However, perhaps the most recent case that has raised eyebrows in the sector is the death of a village elder in Bomet County after leading the community members to dispose cows that had died suddenly after the vets failed to show up after being informed.
It was a case of anthrax. Others were hospitalized. The counties need to carry out annual vaccination to curb such incidences and also educate the population about these diseases.
The current strategy to approach such cases is use of the One Health approach which needs the county to use its multidisciplinary team to handle them.
It is sad that the county governments wait for an outbreak before they allocate money for vaccinations yet it should be annual exercise.
Animal welfare is at the centre of consumption of animal products these days with leading stores requiring strict compliance.
Animals raised in welfare friendly manner performs better and will get better market access thus likely to earn more.
In order to meet this compliance, monitoring, inspection of animal premises and well-trained service providers are needed. Counties need to play a critical role here by ensuring these are achieved.
Counties have a lot to do in terms of funding of veterinary service sector. For each aspect of the sector to be efficient, it requires good planning and enough funding and hopefully the counties will realize the importance of sector especially the ones in arid and semi-arid areas.
Dr Ronald Sang, Veterinary Officer at Kenya Network for Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies (KENDAT)